, 1887-02-25
. BOOK cANvAssER's METHODS.


His Meekness, Humility and Impertur-
Notwithstanding an Order.
well, " said the ~canvasser, putting his
portfolio on ar adjacent desk, while he
presented his autograph album to the re-
porter, and produced pen and ink from a
secret recess in his vest-"Well, I must
first thank you for your kindness, and
now let me tell you that gall is not such
a pre-eminent ingredient in a book can
vasser's make up as you and a great
many other persons seem to imagine.
Our first lessons are taken from the Bible,
which teaches meekness and humility. A
real book canvasser never loses his tenn
per; he never gets angry; he never ar
CUES; but he gradually leads the CONVEX
sation into pleasant channels, and makes
life as agreeable and enjoyable to all
around him as he possibly can. The only
resistance q true canvasser will make to
anybody is when his calling is impeached.
He is early taught to stand up for the
honor of his calling, in spite of all that
may be told him of the misdeeds of others
who have ~disgraced it. There are black
sheep in every flock, and all men should
not be held responsible for the sins of a
few.
1.-THE best way, though, to illustrate
our teachings is to tell you how we
work-and all we do comes out of our
of study, as you call tor our
book OF instructions, as we call it. We
depend on ourselves 10 the largest pos
sible extent. Sometimes we have a
helper, that is, a gentleman or lady Of a
certain neighborhood who, in considera-
ton Of a free copy of the book, intro
duces us to certain people, but the great
trouble about helpers is that they insist
on talking and recommending your work
after introducing you, thereby display
ing their interest and injuring your pros
poets. 1t is harder to keep helpers
quiet than to get along without them, so
l choose not to have them. The power
OF influence we, of course, fully recog-
nize-but it is the influence or example
by leaders either in society or business.
For this reason we are always glad to
have good names to show-some names
in the building, in the block or in tho
immediate neighborhood. On approach
ing a gentleman whose subscription we
desire to secure we AVE several things to
consider, and I shall mention them in
their order. We generally ascertain the
gentleman's name and we make it a
point never to forget a name once ac-
quired. 1t is p~leasanter and more
effective to call a mar by his name when
you meet him the first time, be-
u it makes him feel that his i'm
p%ortance is appreciated and that his fame
is not confined to his family and imms-
date friends. After meeting him, we
look him squarely in the eye, and, with
on staring him, hold him as the ancient
marine held his friend with his glitter
ING ORR. TSSre is great power in the
human eve, and 'nisssides, it shows that
you are not doing a Infsssnng you are
ashamed of. If the person is ~t.&HSsseuoi
too busy we try to make an appoihS
ment for some other time. If we are
canvassing in families and there are chill
dren present, we notice them and say
nice things about their looks, or COM
ment on their resemblance to the head Of
the house.
1.-THE next thing after securing atten-
ton is to create a desire on the part of
the person to see what you've got, for
desire must precede demand. That is
another Of our axioms. We never show
our books until we have created the
necessary desire. You may have OBJ
served that 1 tried to keep my portfolio
hidden by the flap of my o~vercoat. When
we do show our book we do not let it go
out of u hands, but beginning at the
cover, we explain all its good points, put
ting our descriptions into the best words
we can master. We keep cool, do not
hurry; are concise and direct in our Ian
guage, and try never to weary or worry
our customer. Then we secure the order.
As soon as the customer shows signs of
yielding, we have pen and ink ready-we
always carry ink-and obtain his dgna-
ture while his mood is favorable. After
getting the signature we keep away from
the subscriber until we are ready to de-
liver h book, and the delivery is made
at a time when we know the subscriber
money-when he gets his salary if a
working man, and after crop time he
lives in the country.
"Objections9 Oh, gracious yes, we hear
plenty of objections. We are taught to
expect them, and we train ourselves to
meet and answer them. In doing this
we aim to be pleasant and happy, with
out being Extensively smart, and we avoid,
as far as possible, direct or
arguments. Agents who are
to depend on their own facilities
in such emergencies have a manual from
which they may study and memorize
answers to the ordinary objections which
are offered. 1 have such q manual-one
published here, in which you will find
objections with ready made answers =
Globe Democrat.